This week, scientists managed to preserve samples of ancient Arctic ice for analysis in a race against time until it melts due to climate change. Eight French, Italian and Norwegian researchers camped in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago in March and April, braving storms and accidents to preserve vital ice data that can be used to analyze Earth’s past climate and determine the devastating impact of human activity. have it now.

The Ice Memory Foundation team has mined three major glacial ices in Svalbard. Like others collected as part of a 20-year project that began in 2015, they will be stored for further scientific analysis at a research station in Antarctica.

Analyzing chemicals in such deep “ice cores” provides valuable information about climate and environmental conditions in past centuries, long after the original glacier disappeared. But this is a contest to preserve this “ice memory”. Experts warn that as global temperatures rise, meltwater seeps into the ancient ice and risks destroying the geochemical record it contains before scientists can collect the data.

When the Ice Memory team camped at Holtedalfonna, one of the highest and northernmost glaciers in the Arctic, in March, the first problem was the weather. Instead of the expected -25 degrees Celsius (-13 degrees Fahrenheit), strong winds lowered the temperature to -40 degrees Celsius, delaying drilling for several days.

Fragment of an ice core extracted from the Alps for the ice memory preservation project.

Then, when they drilled a 24.5-metre (80-foot) hole in the ice, water gushed from the melting glacier.

Although radar data collected since 2005 has shown meltwater inside the Holtedalfonna glacier, “We did not expect to find such a large, abundant and saturated aquifer at the selected drilling site in late winter,” explained Jean-Charles Halle of the snow. Physicist and exploration coordinator at the Norwegian Polar Institute.